Zack While

            Zack While

Computer Science PhD Student 


I'm Zack, a PhD student at UMass Amherst, advised by Professor Ali Sarvghad in the HCI-VIS Lab; my current work focuses on data visualization accessibility and equity. I am also very interested in mentoring undergraduate research and teaching at a heavily-undergraduate university.

Before this, I completed a Bachelor of Science degree at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, double-majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics.

In my free time I enjoy playing board games and video games, watching anime, playing disc golf, and playing the euphonium.

Contact Information



Email: zwhile [AT] cs [DOT] umass [DOT] edu

Research Experience



Research and Development Intern  --  Kitware

Summer 2021 | Remote

Contributed to a government-contracted project focusing on low-shot object detection.

Summer 2019 | Clifton Park, NY

Carried out internal government-contracted research and development on two different projects, one focusing on object detection and the other focusing on object tracking. Utilized Kitware’s open-source VIAME and KWIVER projects to integrate state-of-the-art methods such as Cascade R-CNN (CVPR 2018) for object detection and SiamRPN++ (CVPR 2019) for object tracking.

Technical Intern  --  Ball Aerospace

Summer 2018 | Dayton, OH

Developed predictive and generative deep learning models that utilize proprietary geospatial data for commercial use. Worked with both imagery as well as numerical data, prototyping neural network architectures and evaluating performance on propriety datasets. Used Python and Keras for deep learning implementation, Prophet for time-series models

Teaching Experience



Adjunct Computer Science Instructor -- Bard College at Simon's Rock  

Spring 2023 | CMPT 100: Introduction to Computer Science (Python), CMPT 330: Introduction to Game Design in Python

Fall 2022 | CMPT 100: Introduction to Computer Science (Python), CMPT 364: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

As an adjunct instructor, I was the one in charge of running the listed course, which includes giving lectures, offering office hours, creating course content, and grading course content. I also supervised a senior thesis in computer science.

Teaching Associate -- University of Massachusetts Amherst  

Spring 2023 | COMPSCI 373: Introduction to Computer Graphics

Spring 2022 | COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty (co-taught with Prof. Andrew Lan) 

Fall 2021 | CICS 191: First Year Seminar (Math Puzzles)

Spring 2021 | COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty (co-taught with Prof. Andrew Lan) 

Fall 2020 | CICS 191: First Year Seminar (Math Puzzles)

As a teaching associate, I was the one in charge of running the listed course, which includes giving lectures, offering office hours, creating course content, grading course content, and directing TAs and UCAs.

Teaching Assistant -- University of Massachusetts Amherst  

Fall 2022 | COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty

Fall 2021 | COMPSCI 121: Introduction to Problem-Solving with Programming (Java)

Fall 2020 | COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty

Spring 2020 | COMPSCI 373: Introduction to Computer Graphics

Fall 2019 | COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty

Summer 2019 | COMPSCI 187: Programming with Data Structures

Spring 2019 | COMPSCI 119: Introduction to Programming with Python

Fall 2018 | COMPSCI 240: Reasoning Under Uncertainty

As a teaching assistant, I worked to help the faculty instructor deliver class materials as effectively as possible. Responsibilities include offering office hours, grading work, and running discussion sections.